Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Delaware
Thundering Herd Downs Blue Hens, 3-1
3/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 8, 2009
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall University Softball team finished up its first home tournament since 2004 with a 3-1 victory over Delaware Sunday at Dot Hicks Field.
The Thundering Herd (11-7) continued to trend to jump on teams early as the Blue Hens (2-4) were no exception falling behind in the bottom of the first 2-0.
"Offensively we come out in the first inning and score two runs and we were able to put the game away and that's what we have to keep getting better at," head coach Shonda Stanton said. "Come C-USA it's going to be a battle every single weekend, every single game."
Freshman Alianna Telles (Sylmar, Calif.) wasted no time as she hit her team leading third home run of the season. The inning continued as senior Joscelyn Bitner (Virginia Beach, Va.) was hit by a pitch in the head, putting her on first.
With Bitner out, freshman Melissa Loesing (Grapevine, Texas) stepped up to pinch run making it to third on a stolen base and passed ball before junior Caitlyn Jackson (Ontario, Calif.) nailed a shot to the outfield for the sacrifice fly scoring Loesing.
The score would remain at two when Delaware attemped to plate its first run in the fourth with three singles in a row from Abbie Suroksy, Quinn Megargel and Michelle Grap to load the bases with no outs.
Senior Autumn Mitchell (Shady Spring, W.Va.) who started for the Herd in the circle, managed to get out of the inning as her pitching and team's defense managed to get a pop out followed by a double play when senior Kelly Nielson (Tucson, Ariz.) stepped on third for the force and then threw to first for the third out.
Marshall's lead extended to three in the bottom half of the inning as senior Rachel Schmidt (Alliance, Ohio) got things going with a double to center field. Sophomore Jessica Hughes (Stillwater, Okla.) entered to pinch run and score as Nielson doubled to center field.
"Kelly (Nielson) did a fantastic job this weekend," Stanton said. "She's continued to step up and improve her game."
Mitchell was taken out of the game in the seventh to give junior Virginia Campbell an inning of work. The Blue Hens tried to work Campbell starting off with a Kim Ovittore single followed a fielders choice from Shanette White.
Caitlin Smith then pushed the runners over with a sacrifice bunt before Cecile Egan grounded out but allowed Ovittore to score taking the lead down to two. After another groundout and a strikeout swinging, Marshall finished the game giving Mitchell the win and Campbell the save.
"Autumn did a great job as we continue to get what we need in the circle and nice to see Virginia (Campbell) get in there as well," Stanton said.
The Herd finished the game with five hits and extended its stolen base total to 45 after four weekends of play as the team only managed 37 all of last season. Leading the way for Marshall is Loesing who is 11-14 on stolen bases.
"I'll take the weekend as a whole because I saw a lot of great things but I also see a lot of things we need to get back to work on this week and prepare for a very tough C-USA schedule."
With the tournament portion of the schedule done, the Herd will open up Conference USA play and continue its home stand as UTEP comes to town March 14-15. Saturday starts with a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. EST and a Sunday game at 12:00 p.m. EST.
Live game statistics will be available via Gametracker and on the airwaves of WMUL 88.1 FM and at http://www.marshall.edu/wmul. All of the Herd's home games are also available with live streaming with Herd All-Access.
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